How can newspapers survive when advertising revenue is pouring online?
I am a paid subscriber to the “Guardian” newspaper which has just issued this encouraging statement:
“The Guardian is now funded by more than 800,000 supporters from more than 140 countries. Half a million readers are subscribers or members, or give to us on a monthly basis, while over the past 12 months we’ve received another 300,000 individual contributions from readers all over the world. We are also seeing strong sales of our print Guardian and Observer newspapers.
We are encouraged and cheered by the hundreds of thousands of you who are supporting our journalism. In the last year alone, the number of readers who support us regularly has more than doubled; and we now receive more income from our readers than we do from advertisers. This is a significant step.
We will continue to rely and build on this in the year ahead as we aim, with your help, to reach many thousands more committed supporters and sustain that support for the long term so that we keep investing in quality, investigative journalism. We haven’t put up a paywall. Instead, we want to remain a strong, progressive force that is open for all. So we need many more of our readers to fund the Guardian and the role it plays in the world.”